@OLD CS1, I just checked and found that I have a spare copy of the binder with the manual (missing both the disk and the tape). Let me know if you are interested in them. . .

If you would hold that token for me for a bit. I would like to find a full set, if possible.

In other news, I am dealing with an eBay buyer who has sent me a very thinly-veiled threat to help him install his pirated operating system or he will return the system I sold him. I immediately contacted eBay and the folks there have set up a case to dispute him should he actually file a claim.

In terms of driving I always note that if you are going to drive like a jack-ass you should not do so with your number, or the number of your company, on the side of your vehicle. Applied to eBay: if you are going to extort someone on an eBay purchase, perhaps doing so through eBay's messaging system is the wrong way to do it.

I remember this from way BITD.! I cannot remember why we went to the Kmart in Chehalis (lived in Kelso at the time), but I was surprised to see one of the Romox programmers in the store and it supported the TI-99/4A! I do remember not being overly excited about the meger software offerings though.

That Kmart closed about 3 or 4 months ago IIRC, it's now an empty build with an empty parking lot. It's too bad we didn't all take pictures back then knowing what we know now.

That Kmart closed about 3 or 4 months ago IIRC, it's now an empty build with an empty parking lot. It's too bad we didn't all take pictures back then knowing what we know now.

Maybe see if there is any way to get into the back stores and see if anything is left of from old days. I have often lamented over the lack of good independent and personal documentation of the era. Though at the time it would have been highly irregular and unlikely for my dad to carry his Kodak 126-film camera to K-Mart with us to take photos of me playing on the TI and Commodores on display, and so on. It actually tickles me to see old commercials popping up on YouTube making me wonder what treasures I might have hidden away on some of my VHS tapes (aside from the original HBO presentation of "Return of the Jedi.")

I have thought maybe today would be more reasonable to do given the proliferation of documenting technology, but for a large part I see nothing compelling insofar as home technology, certainly not like when I was growing up. Back then was the "home computer revolution," when there were ridiculous numbers of platforms vying to be THE platform, surviving the crash and subsequent rebirth of the home video game revolution. By comparison, there is nothing exciting about Mac versus Windows, iPhone versus Android, or PS4 versus XBox as Atari 8-bit versus Apple II versus Commodore versus Tandy versus Texas Instruments versus Atari 32-bit versus Amiga versus Apple IIgs versus PC versus Mac or Atari versus Nintendo versus Intelivision versus ColecoVision, as so on.

At least, I see nothing compelling. I see a lot of the same old ideas from my youth rehashed into better technology: better or different ways to resolve the same age-old questions. Maybe I am jaded by having to wait so long for technology to catch up. For instance, how it is much easier now to prototype ideas, from the ease of producing or simple circuit boards or having them mass produced all the way to actually, literally printing products, both processes in the past which could have taken ten-times as long and cost as much.

At VCFSE the past two years I have noted to attendees stopping by our table that anything, ANYTHING, they are doing or will do in technology has its genesis somewhere within that hall. I spoke with a couple of embedded engineers who explained they were very interested in "retro" computers because of their work, and it hit me that to a large degree it works both ways -- think about any "retro" enthusiasts who get involved in embedded technologies and find it welcoming because of their experience with the apparent limitations of the platforms. These are doers who love a challenge and I envy them as I have found recently that I have fallen into a mode of consumption rather than creation which is very difficult to break free, and I am not certain if that is the result of being jaded or bored.

All to say, I am far less excited about the forward "progress" in home technology today than I was when I was younger.

In terms of driving I always note that if you are going to drive like a jack-ass you should not do so with your number, or the number of your company, on the side of your vehicle.

Funny you should say that. I was driving to work a while back and this ahole in a heavy duty pickup changes lanes right on top of me. I lay on my horn change lanes and pull up beside me and holler and him nearly running into me and he hurls a slew of nasty obscenities at me all while his not too young to understand kid is in the back seat. I made note of the company on the side and looked them up when I got to work. Looked at the “about” page and it turns out the guy was the president or something or other. It was also located in our small quakertown. I used the “contact us” page and wrote out how I was disappointed the president of the company would not only behave like that while in a company vehicle but with a kid in the car no less. I made sure to recount the situation in the form. I know in companies of even moderate size those forms are at least seen by a few other people so I at the very least hoped to cause him some professional embarrassment.

If the circuit layout is as simple as the one Mainbyte shows, then, with the details of the included chip, it shouldn't be too difficult for someone who knows what they're doing to come up with a way to program it. May have to get a separate EPROM programmer & remove the chip every time, though.

May even be able to work out how to do it without removing the chip. With an adapter to the programmer for the card edge.

Definitely watching this in part because I cannot find an image of it, only an image of Jumpy which is supposed to be the same game. Does anyone have an image for QMaze? When these games switched hands were there any changes made within the games?

The MyArc card (and maybe some of the others,) has a dip switch setting that will tell it to double step for 40 track disks on that drive (1 switch per drive.) This drive is one of the rare DD 80 track drives I've been able to find, and the price isn't all that bad for what you're getting either. I have a similar (but different make/model) drive in my PEB and it works great. Formats up to 720K, but reads & writes the 40 track disks just fine as well. It does suffer from the 80/40 track issue that disks written in "this" drive may not read in a true 40 track drive (the heads in 80 track drives are narrower, and the wider heads in 40 track drives may not read the track correctly.)

Anyways, thought I'd put it up here in case someone wants to give it a try

If you've wanted a P-Box, this one looks like it's all ready to go. I've purchased from Dano before, in fact my P-Box *was* nearly identical to this configuration when I bought mine from him a few years back.

The only limiting factor I see is that you'll probably have to also purchase a << KEYSPAN USB ADAPTER >> if you plan to use the HDX with a modern PC.